How to turn your Amazon Fire tablet into a smart home control hub

Amazon Fire tablets aren’t your typical Android devices. Aside from focusing on media consumption over games and productivity, they turn to Amazon services first and foremost. You’re meant to quickly access Amazon Shopping, Kindle e-books, Audible audiobooks, Amazon Music, Prime Video, and more.

If you know what you’re doing, you can turn your Fire tablet into a dedicated smart home hub — making it more straightforward to control smart light bulbs, switches, plugs, thermostats, and more.

Editor’s note: We formulated these instructions using an Amazon Fire HD 10 (9th generation) running Fire OS 7.3.3.1. Some steps and menus may differ slightly depending on your device and software version.

Requirements

Some important points before we get started:

• You’ll need a Fire tablet running Fire OS 7 or later.
• For hub control, smart home accessories must be compatible with both Alexa and Device Dashboard (a Fire tablet feature). Only lights, plugs, switches, thermostats, and cameras will appear in the Dashboard, so you’ll have to resort to voice control, the official app, or the actual Alexa app for accessories like smart locks.
• Smart home devices should already be connected to your Alexa account and listed in the Alexa app.
• Your Fire tablet needs to be linked to the same Alexa account as the smart devices.
• All devices must be on the same Wi-Fi network. If you have separate 2.4, 5, or 6GHz SSIDs (network names), you’ll either have to merge them into a single SSID or connect every device to a single band, preferably 2.4GHz, since it has better range and compatibility. This is no longer usually a problem, though. Most networks can now sync devices across radio frequencies.
• Update your Fire tablet, Alexa app, and smart home devices to the latest software available.

How to turn your Amazon Fire tablet into a smart home control hub

1. Turn your Amazon Fire tablet on and tap on the Device Dashboard button. It’s located at the bottom of the screen, to the left of the navigation buttons.
2. A view of all your smart home functions will become visible, with buttons to operate them.
3. Next to Favorites, tap on the Edit option to pin your favorite tiles to the top. Select Add Favorites to create new shortcuts.
4. If you have compatible devices, you’ll also see buttons for turning all lights or switches on or off.
5. You can also move over to the Devices tab to control all your smart home products.

If you’re going to use a Fire tablet as a dedicated hub, consider mounting it with a tablet stand in a central location, such as a hallway or the entrance to your kitchen or living room. While some people may object to the aesthetics of that, there’s not much point to a control panel for which you have to make a long detour. You may even want multiple tablets, so they’re never more than a few seconds away.

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